Right: Lance Armstrong on his way to his first Tour De France victory in 1999, after recovering from testicular cancer. He was to win the famous race seven times consecutively.
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Background information
Background
(The following information is an abbreviated version of the Wikipedia entry titled 'Lance Armstrong'.
The full text of the entry can be accessed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance_Armstrong)
Armstrong began competing at 16 as a triathlete and was a national sprint-course triathlon champion in 1989 and 1990. In 1992, Armstrong began his career as a professional cyclist with the Motorola team. He had notable success between 1993 and 1996, including the 1993 World Championship, Cl sica de San Sebasti n in 1995, an overall victory in the penultimate Tour DuPont and a handful of stage victories in Europe, including the stage to Limoges in the Tour de France.
In October 1996, Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer that had spread to his brain and lungs. His cancer treatments included brain and testicular surgery and extensive chemotherapy.
In February 1997, Armstrong was declared cancer-free and the same year he founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation. By January 1998, he had renewed serious cycling training, having signed a new racing contract with US Postal. He was a member of the US Postal/Discovery team between 1998 and 2005. Armstrong won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times between 1999 and 2005.
On July 24 2005, Armstrong retired from racing at the end of the 2005 Tour de France, but returned to competitive cycling with the Astana team in January 2009 and finished third in the 2009 Tour de France. Between 2010 and 2011, he raced with the UCI ProTeam he helped found, Team Radio Shack.
On February 16 2011, Armstrong announced his retirement from competitive cycling, while facing a US federal investigation into doping allegations. In February 2012, he returned to triathlon, competing as a professional in several events.
In June 2012, United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) charged Armstrong with having used illicit performance-enhancing drugs, and on August 24 2012 it announced a lifetime ban from competition, applicable to all sports which follow the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code, as well as the stripping of all titles won since August 1998.
The USADA report concluded that Armstrong enforced 'the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen'. On October 22, 2012, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the sport's governing body, announced its decision to accept USADA's findings.
Armstrong chose not to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and in January 2013 Armstrong admitted doping in a television interview conducted by Oprah Winfrey, despite having made multiple denials throughout his career and having successfully sued a number of individuals who had made accusations against him.